Stormlash Totem tracking with Weakauras

Hi!

I've been wondering for quite a while if I could track out Stormlash Totem for when it's up, for my whole raid, so everyone is on the same page. Blizzard made it quite difficult because there is no time on Stormlash (the aura) so you can't really make an aura to track the time... since there's not one.

Basically, the only option I have is like a DBM/BWigs timer where everyone would put up a timer and just follow that to chain them up. It's a good possibility, but me being an Enhance shaman, I spam my buttons and sometimes hit the keybind for Stormlash when it's on GCD so it makes a timer... for nothing.

What I would like to do is this:

1- Make an aura to know when Stormlash is down, not when I drop it inclusively, but when someone, including me, drops it.
2- When it's down, it starts a 10-sec timer, on the aura, so you visually know when it's about to come off

I can easily make up an aura for when it's down, but I never know when it's about to go off, so the chain isn't perfect, and in a hardcore raiding environment, it needs to be perfect. The aura testing process is kinda long due to do 5min CD of it. :/ I guess the answer lies within the "custom" options.

I have a working system for this in the new version of my auras I'm testing out now. It seems to be working, but I want to run it a few more times in actual raids to be sure it's catching the other Stormlashes properly.

The current version (if you were to download it) has an aura that tracks the aura, which as you said does not help with timing; it's either on or off. What I've done is have one that tracks the aura, with a timer added on my cast, if the aura is mine. I then have a second aura that's parsing the combat log for anyone else casting Stormlash Totem and me getting the aura, and putting up a bar with a timer there as well.

That's the only way I see to do it. The Aura trigger doesn't have a timer unless the aura has a duration, and totem auras don't. You need to go with combat log events, which will allow you to manually set a timer.

Yeah, with a lot of research that seems to be the only option. Some people suggested to use something like event- combat log - spell cast - Stormlash and it just shows up when you attack with stormlash. I mean, you could make anything "work" and say "it's the best we can do for now", but I'd really like a progress icon for whenever it's dropped.

I'm pretty sure you can make up a LUA custom code to add a timer on your aura even if you don't necessarily have one, which is the case for Stormlash totem. I posted a thread directly on the WeakAuras forums to see what they can do.

There's 4 auras total. The first tracks your cooldown. The fourth just makes the icon pulse when your Stormlash is available to be used. The second tracks YOUR Stormlash; the trigger is Status-Totem-Air-Stormlash Totem. Those all work perfectly fine for tracking your own stuff.

The money is in the 3rd aura, which tracks OTHER people's Stormlash Totems, with a timer. It's not 100%; I think it'll show up if an enemy Shaman drops a Stormlash Totem in PvP. I don't even prevent it showing up if you cast Stormlash Totem, I just set the frame strata lower than the personal aura, so it always shows up "under" it and thus can't be seen.

I'm not completely happy with it, but it's perfectly functional in PvE.

Yep, the spell - summon works perfectly, just tested with another shaman.

Yep, I'm still in testing because I'm hoping I can find a slightly better way to track it; currently I believe if you're in PvP, and an enemy Shaman drops Stormlash, it'll trigger that aura (haven't tested, but it should). That's obviously not ideal, but that's why I'm going to invest some more time before MoP to try and polish that out.

I just dont understand why there is not option to add custom timer to any aura...

Some auras already have timers built in, meaning you now have two timers. Which does it use? If you want it to use the new one, just use a different trigger that doesn't have an automatic timer. That's basically what I did; rather than set it to track the aura (which has no timer, and thus no countdown appears), I set it to track someone summoning a Stormlash Totem, and setting a timer on that. That also means if I'm out of range or for some other reason don't get the aura, I still have the timer to time mine based on when the raid will be able to benefit again.

BTW: How do I import your code? Cant find this feature anyway.

Open WeakAuras in-game by hitting /wa, click "new", click "import", and copy-paste that stuff into the window that appears.

Personally, I just made an icon in weakauras which shows when my stormlash totem is up (triggered by status->totem), announces to BG>Raid>party>say (under the actions tab) when I both put it up, and it runs out, so other shaman get an idea of when to place another. Ofc, normally this is preceded by an announce on vent before, so the other shaman dont put it down right when i do too, but the warnings let them know when it's run out to place another if it's useful.

Had a lot of fun learning to use weakauras since 5.0, i used powerauras for a long time, but i decided to try something new after i had trouble doing something, weakauras also took over the role of totemtimers and dotimers in my UI now, and i've barely scratched the surface of what i can do (even stuff like adding multiple triggers to my totem bars so it excludes the dummy totems from glyph of totemic encirclement seems fairly trivial).

Very interesting endus ... i just tried it out and it tracks my cd correctly...

But ... does it let you track the stormlash t cd of several shamans? Or just only one other shaman? I ask this because our guild sometimes uses 4 shamans.

It tracks multiple Shaman. There's two auras that track uptime; one tracks your own Air totems (if they're named Stormlash Totem); there's a second that's on a lower frame strata that pops up whenever anyone in your combat log summons a Stormlash Totem. If it was you, the first one overlaps it (because it's hard-set to a higher frame strata). If it wasn't, you just see the second tracker, which is a darker color to distinguish it. Both track the 10s duration accurately.

The only issue there should be with my tracker is that I think (I haven't tested it) it'll pop up if an enemy Shaman drops Stormlash in BGs/arenas/world PvP. I'm going to try and adjust that before MoP if I can, but for PvE, it should be as good as you could want it.

It also won't track WHOSE Stormlash it is proccing that second aura. I'm also seeing if I can snag that somehow but it may not be possible (it would be useful if you had a rotation and you knew who you came after in that rotation, for instance).

I'm not planning to add announces like turkeygiblets did, but they're relatively easy to add in if you like. We're usually coordinating that stuff through Vent in my own guild, but the tracker means I know exactly when the old one runs out before popping my own.

Hi, I will also post it into this section of the forum for you shaman guys since macro/UI section might not be that visible. Please note that I didnt write custom trigged code for this. Its from guy who doesn't know the name of author aswell. All I did is visual side and code for announcing caster's name to the chat.

WHAT IT DOES:
- Icon with duration for Stormlash totem used by any shaman in party/raid (ST which gives you buff - including you when going solo without party)
- Name of the caster next to the icon.
- Announcing to the chat the name of caster when Stormlash Totem started (e.g. Diphal's Stormlash Totem is up!) and when it has ended (e.g. Diphal's Stormlash Totem has ended!)

Hi, I will also post it into this section of the forum for you shaman guys since macro/UI section might not be that visible. Please note that I didnt write custom trigged code for this. Its from guy who doesn't know the name of author aswell. All I did is visual side and code for announcing caster's name to the chat.

WHAT IT DOES:
- Icon with duration for Stormlash totem used by any shaman in party/raid (ST which gives you buff - including you when going solo without party)
- Name of the caster next to the icon.
- Announcing to the chat the name of caster when Stormlash Totem started (e.g. Diphal's Stormlash Totem is up!) and when it has ended (e.g. Diphal's Stormlash Totem has ended!)

There was a weakauras thread made by a shaman which I can't seem to find at the moment, but I use the stormlash aura which they posted up. Works very nicely, I'll post the string when I get home so people can have a look at it, but it looks like therehave been quite a few auras posted up anyway.

It works the way I have 2 auras for any shaman we can have in raid (currently 5 shamans including me). One aura shows icon with timer, second aura shows name right next to the icon and announces name to chat aswell. This has its pros and cons. Positive is that it shows any Stormlash and his owner simultaneously even if you guys will screw up and overlap them. Negative side of this is that you have to set these for any shaman you can have in raid. Which isnt problem for me since we are kinda stable guild. But I can imagine that it could be messy if you have many raiding shamans.

Anyway if you want to try it here is what you will have to edit to make it work for you:

1. Load option. I have it loaded on my name (Feli) so you will have to change it on your name, or shaman spec for example... it would work for any shaman then but I like just name. This option is same for all auras under that group so you can edit it in group settings (Load tab).

2. Trigger option. Since I have two auras for every raiding shaman, you will have to edit this in every aura. 1st two are called Feli which is me. Its triggered on player base (no name here) so it will work even for you. Auras for other shamans are triggered based on "Source name", just edit them to names of your shamans.

3. Also you will have to edit display text of "name" auras under tab "Display" and message which is announced under "Actions" (there are two messages. One when aura shows up - Feli's Stormlash Totem is up! and Second - Feli's Stormlash Totem has ended!).

I it know looks messy but its only playing with names. It works as I wanted and looks good because its all in dynamic group.